Southern Ocean UN Decade - ‘The science we need for the ocean we want’

We are at the start of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030) to reverse the cycle of decline in ocean health. The initiative aims to globally strengthen the international cooperation needed to develop the scientific research and innovative technologies that can connect ocean science with the needs of society.

World Strepsiptera Database launched!

A world list of Strepsiptera – twisted-wing parasitoids – is now accessible through their very own portal, as part of Aphia, the platform behind the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS). The World Strepsiptera Database currently contains 605 accepted species, and will be updated to catch up with newly described species in the last 5 years.

Awardees for the 2021 WoRMS Achievement & Early Career Researchers Award known

This year, the WoRMS Achievement Award goes to Chad Walter, and the WoRMS Early Career Researchers Award was granted to Ralf Cordeiro.

Big Five conservation measures for diadromous fish

Five years of fish tracking research using the LifeWatch fish acoustic receiver network has generated key insights in how to save diadromous fish species from historically low numbers.

WoRMS is being honored with new genus

For the first time, a genus has been named after WoRMS: Wormsina.

Join the webinar about the importance and interest of e-taxonomy

On the 23rd of June, the Antarctic Biodiversity Portal organizes the online webinar ‘availability and digitization of identification keys for the Southern Ocean’. Registrations are restricted.

New version of ETN database online

Acoustic telemetry data were already available. But now the ETN database also allow the upload of (meta)data linked to archival tags and acoustic-data-storage tags (ADST).

MarineRegions Exclusive Economic Zones now featured as essential map on MarineTraffic.com

An important dataset from MarineRegions (LifeWatch Belgium) is integrated in MarineTraffic.com and helps to improve the experience of millions of users on a monthly basis.

Flanders supported research data infrastructures played key role in UN Ocean report

On 21 April 2021, the United Nations launched the Second World Ocean Assessment (WOA 2) on the state of the world’s ocean, covering environmental, economic and social aspects.

Aphia now compliant with the new Catalogue of Life Data Package (COLDP) format and exporting several WoRMS subregisters

From now onwards, the Aphia infrastructure is capable of exporting several of its sub-registers to the Catalogue of Life (COL) in their new Data Package format. This new format was developed to overcome some of the limitations in currently used formats.